The Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), on Thursday, said the banking industry lost the sum of N12.30 billion to various frauds between 2014 and 2017.

Mr Adebisi Shonubi, Managing Director, NIBBS, disclosed this at the third Annual Banking Security Summit organized by MAXUT Consulting in partnership with OneSpan, a global data security company in Lagos.

Shonubi said the figure was lost in 41,461 fraud cases between 2014 and 2017.

Specifically, he noted that 2014 fraud volume stood at 1,461, 10,743 (2015), 19,531 in 2016 and 25,043 in 2017.

Speaking on “Industry fraud overview with focus on mobile & payments related frauds,” Shonubi said the industry lost N6.22 billion in 2014 on attempted fraud value of N7.76 billion

Shonubi who was represented by Mr Olufemi Fadairo, Head, Industry Security Services, said the sum of N2.26 billion was lost in 2015 on attempted fraud value of N4.37 billion in 2015.

According to him, the industry lost the sum of N2.19 billion in 2016 on attempted fraud value of N4.37 billion.

Shonubi said gender fraud analysis during the period showed males accounted for 73 per cent, while females accounted for 23 per cent.

He said more fraud cases were reported in 2017, with an increase of 28 per cent compared with 2016 but with less financial loss.

On fraud channel, Shonubi said the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) accounted for the highest fraud in 2017 with an actual loss of N497.64 million with a fraud volume of 9,823.

According to him, mobile trailed with N347.65 million loss on 5,055 fraud volume, while across the counter transactions accounted for N259. 02 million loss in 314 fraud volume.

He said that “while fraud trend is generally on the decline, mobile fraud trend alone is on the increase.”

Shonubi said mobile fraud would overtake ATM fraud by 2020 with the rate of increasing fraud in the channel.

He listed the top three mobile threats in Nigeria to include phone theft, sim swaps and kidnaps. Shonubi, however, called on Nigerians to shield themselves by ensuring phone lock, sim lock, swap/recycle checks.

Also speaking, Mr Mike Odusami, CEO/President of MAXUT Consulting, said the summit was geared toward making the financial system safer for people to have trust in the system.

“Our solution as a technology company is really about fraud prevention and making sure that this is the person the bank authorizes because most of the transactions are not physical, they are done through electronic channels.

“And also in the background, we are monitoring everything that is going on in the system, that is fraud monitoring and we have helped a lot of banks and financial institutions to do that,” he said.

Odusami said the company was committed to make the banking system safer for people to have confidence in the system by preventing.

He said the Nigerian banking system was advanced and not lacking behind in terms of digital banking.

“We are very advanced; we are not lacking behind, but because a lot of transactions are still done through USSD channel, this is the normal feature channel and anybody can use it.

“Lot frauds are done in that channel either through SIM swap, stolen phones, and kidnapping. So we are working with the banks to develop a solution to curb that,” Odusami said.

He said the country was still behind in open banking security, and that it was relatively new with more players connecting to the banking system.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit was themed: “Digital Channels & Open Banking Security.” (NAN)